A U.S. airman firing an M60 within the standing place in the Defender Challenge Levels of competition in 1988. The M60 may be precisely fired at shorter ranges within the shoulder due to its layout.

The turret, even without the siliceous cored armor, delivered enhanced ballistic protection. Further House with the turret crew was also designed available by using the M140 mount So going the cannon 5 inches forward.[55]

The M60A2 featured a unique minimal profile turret, mounting the M162 Gun/Launcher that significantly minimized the turret's frontal arc compared to the A1's. It consisted of a giant disk which has a slim channel in the middle with Each and every crew member in the turret acquiring their own personal hatch.

The sear within the induce system acquired a popularity for sporting down, in addition to a malfunction could lead to the gun to "operate away".[24] A next sear notch was ultimately included to the operating rod to lessen the possibility of this taking place.

Several backup weapons ended up also into consideration and concept reports were being ready exhibiting their application to your MBT-70 concepts. The 152mm gun-launcher XM81 also was regarded with no missile depending only about the combustible circumstance traditional ammunition.

The M60 obtained the nickname "The Pig" due to its bulky sizing and hunger for ammunition.[fifteen][sixteen] Vietnam's tropical climate harshly influenced weapons, plus the M60 was no exception. Its gentle body weight brought about it becoming very easily ruined and significant sections just like the bolt and operating rod wore out rapidly.

 A British Royal Air Pressure officer handles an M60 through an indication for Combined Joint Activity Force Physical exercise (CJTFEX) in 2004. The look drew on a lot of typical principles in firearms manufacture from the period of time, for example stamped sheet metallic construction, belt feed (a modified mechanism for belt feed from your MG 42 with an individual pawl), speedy barrel substitution, a pistol grip and inventory, plus a semi bullpup layout just like the tranferable machine guns for sale FG 42 (Substantially from the action occupies the weapon's inventory). The M60's functioning technique of an operating rod turning a rotating bolt was inspired from the FG 42, which was based on the much previously Lewis Gun.

It absolutely was also discovered that structural machine guns available for purchase cracks within the barrel transpired immediately after a number of missile firings. This defect was traced to some flaw from the missile's longitudinal important, which equipped into a keyway inside the gun barrel.

As the main improvements were being integrated into the creation line, the car model designations were changed. The 1st of which was Leading Loading Air Cleaner (TLAC) in 1971. This lessened Filth and dirt ingestion, which increased engine life along with enabling for much easier servicing on the motor.[sixty four] Early TLAC panels have been made out of aluminum and have been prone to destruction from compact arms hearth.[51]

Most M60A1 RISE tanks have been cheapest transferable machine gun retrofitted to this typical immediately after 1977.[sixty three] The M68E1 gun shares exactly the same firing qualities as being the M68. It highlighted numerous style and design improvements including an up to date gun hydraulic configuration, a stabilization update for the gun, a gun elevation kill swap with the loader, enhanced ballistic drive and various component refinements.[26]

The first variant of the M60 series in the long run was manufactured as A fast repair engineering (QFE) update on the M48 a result of the Soviet Union's name of machine guns tank advancements in the late 1950s along with the delays from acquiring the silicas armor and an improved turret design.

The M21 FCS for the M60A3 was designed up of a Raytheon AN/WG-two flash-lamp pumped ruby-laser based mostly variety finder, accurate nearly 5000 meters transferable thompson machine gun for both the commander and gunner, a good-condition M21E1 gun information computer incorporating a muzzle reference sensor and crosswind sensor, ammunition collection, assortment correction and superelevation correction were inputted through the gunner, an improved turret stabilization system as well as an upgraded turret electrical procedure and sound-state analog details card bus.[51] The M10A2E3 ballistic generate can be an electro-mechanical unit.

Due to this fact, Every crew member was efficiently isolated from one another While using the gunner and loader divided by Shillelagh missiles within their storage posture.

The M60E6 includes a machined aluminum feed protect with integrated M1913 Picatinny rail for mounting optics. An aluminum M1913 rail handguard gives for the mounting of infrared laser aiming devices together with other sensors, giving the weapon 24 hour capability. Characteristics: